Tanaka completes first day of workouts

As Day 2 of Spring Training draws to a close, here are some final notes and pieces from today.

— Masahiro Tanaka had a good first day of workouts, but there were some differences between workouts in America and workouts in Japan. In Japan, Tanaka would throw longer bullpens because the pitchers would only pitch once a week. He was surprised by how fast the workouts went today–but what is Tanaka going to remember the most from the workout?

“Probably what I will remember is the four laps that we did at the end,” he said. “It was pretty hard.”

I have a good feeling Tanaka is not going to have a problem fitting in with the Yankees: he, Hiroki Kuroda, CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova all had a good laugh today during PFP.

— Francisco Cervelli caught Tanaka’s first American bullpen a couple days ago and caught his bullpen again today. What were his observations?

“The fastball command was really good,” Cervelli said. “He threw the same pitches — (fastballs), sliders and split — but what I care about is the fastball, and it was really good. The two-seam and some sliders was good, some a little slow, but he’s going to get it with the time.”

— Japanese reliever Yoshinori Tateyama has not yet reported to camp due to visa issues. There’s no word as to when he’s going to arrive.

— Joe Girardi spoke about the transition Masahiro Tanaka is going to have to make as he prepares to pitch in the Major Leagues for the first time in his young career.

“I think what you’ll see is you’ll see his bullpens shorter than what it might be if (he’s starting) every seven days. Some of the bullpen numbers that I’ve heard they throw in Japan, it’s pretty hard to work it here if you’re throwing 100 pitches in between starts. Those are the things we’re going to have to manage. He’ll throw a couple times on five days rest in spring training, and maybe one time we’ll give him a sixth day just because of an off day. But just trying to get him used to the five-day rotation slowly.”